Monday, 10 November 2008

New York Times offer Barack Obama Facebook free gift after seeing 'Obama Wins' paper editions selling for $100+ on Ebay

Facebook Gifts are popular with Facebook users. By going to the Facebook gift shop Facebook users can send each other virtual gifts which show up as an icon on the recipients Facebook profile. Gifts are either paid for directly to Facebook (previously $1 per gift but now done through a paid credits system) or are free gifts if they are advertiser funded.

The New York Times have tapped into this and is currently offering a free Barack Obama virtual gift to Facebook users.

On Wednesday the New York Times paper edition that declared Barack Obama the winner of the Presidential election sold out and it is currently selling for over $100 a copy on Ebay (who said newspapers were dead?)

A selection of Ebay completed listings showing New York Times 'Obama Wins' paper edition selling for over $100 copy (click for larger image)

There is clearly a demand to celebrate the Obama win by owning the New York Times 'Obama Wins' front page, so the New York Times have created a Facebook gift that allows Facebook users to send each other a virtual copy of the 'Obama Wins' front page and have it showing on their profile.

Users log in to the Facebook gift shop, select the New York Times gift and select who of their friends should receive it:

Facebook gift shop showing NYT Obama gift

Once sent, the recipient is notified in their Facebook feed:

Gift notification in News Feed

The gift recipient is also notified by email and sent to a landing page that gives them the option of accepting the gift and making it public:

New York Times Obama virtual gift landing page

The receipt of the gift is then publicised on the users feed and shows up on the recipients profile.

The New York Times 'Obama Wins' virtual gift is a great example of how brands can engage with users using Facebook virtual gifting. The gift is limited to 2,000,000 and I assume it will be gone shortly (free gifts usually have a limited life span.) Get your virtual 'Obama Wins' front page while you can!